iOS

Jailbreak

Cydia

Do you remember Tether? Back in November of 2011, they brought us a $14.99 App Store application, which allowed us to share our iPhone’s 3G data connection with another device. Many applications have snuck past Apple’s watchful eye into the App Store supporting tethering features, however with a name like 'iTether' it’s almost humiliating for them not to have caught it when it was submitted. What's even funnier is the description for the application in the App Store blatantly said it was a tethering application in black and white. It was later removed.

If you want tethering, but you hate waiting for the occasional App Store troll that slips by Apple's guards with tethering capabilities, then you can hop onto a new solution by the company Tether. It’s an HTML5 application, which you can access from any iPhone or iPad with cellular capabilities whether it is jailbroken or not in the Safari application and share your data connection to any other Wi-Fi device. This means no App Store apps and no jailbreak apps necessary – just a Web page.

It doesn’t come free, but it does come cheap. For the next week, Tether will be offering their service for a mere $15 for the entire year. After the week is over, it will cost $30 per year. If you act quickly, you can lock in the cheaper price – it sure is cheaper than what your carrier wants you to pay them, huh?

Tether uses an Ad-Hoc network for providing its tethering services to your computer. There is software you will need to install on your Mac or PC to use it. After you do that, there are some instructions to follow, which are listed below:

Run Tether on your computer. Enter a name for the SSID of the ad-hoc network that will be created. You may enter a password for the network or leave it blank for an open network.

On your iOS mobile device click the Settings icon and then click Wi-Fi. Select the tether.com:SSIDNAME network and enter the WEP key if you created the network with one.

Open the safari browser on your iOS mobile device and visit http://tether.com/web. If you have an account, login and follow the on screen instructions. The webpage should then establish a connection between the iOS mobile device and your Mac.

Once the Server Status and the Computer Status show that they are connected your Mac/PC should now be online!

Just remember: unauthorized tethering is still against your carrier's terms of service. Do this at your own risk.

"If you want free tethering, but you hate waiting for the occasional App Store troll that slips by Apple's guards with tethering capabilities, then you can hop onto a new solution by the company Tether."

"It doesn’t come free, but it does come cheap. For the next week, Tether will be offering their service for a mere $15 for the entire year."

Contradictory, I think. Just to be clear, the ability to tether DOES cost. Honestly, if I were not jailbroken. This looks like a pretty awesome product.

"If you want free tethering, but you hate waiting for the occasional App Store troll that slips by Apple's guards with tethering capabilities, then you can hop onto a new solution by the company Tether."

"It doesn’t come free, but it does come cheap. For the next week, Tether will be offering their service for a mere $15 for the entire year."

Contradictory, I think. Just to be clear, the ability to tether DOES cost. Honestly, if I were not jailbroken. This looks like a pretty awesome product.

Can't decide whether joke or real... :3 haha I jailbreak for a reason, there are many other FREE alternatives that I can actually use my other iOS devices on my tethering iPhone and not JUST my laptop...

I turn on PDANet to use as a hotspot on the iPhone, then I connect the VPN on the iPhone, in that order. If I do PDANet after VPN, for some reason the VPN randomly drops leaving my tether exposed and visible.

If I tether through the VPN I don't think there's any way for them to know. A VPN is a necessity, anyway. If a hotspot is already available I can use the VPN on the laptop, otherwise I can use it on the iPhone.

The biggest concern with using an alternate tethering method is getting caught and charged. If that won't happen then this is a good bet. But the main thing I want to do is use my iPhone data on a Wifi only iPad. I don't think that's possible with this method.

It's important to note you must browse to Tether.com to start your hotspot. Wouldn't it be trivial for the carriers to just block access to that url to stop us? And wouldn't it be trivial for the carriers to check who actually went there?

Can't decide whether joke or real... :3 haha I jailbreak for a reason, there are many other FREE alternatives that I can actually use my other iOS devices on my tethering iPhone and not JUST my laptop...

The vast majority of people out there do not have a jailbroken phone. There are also those that would like one, but bought their phone after it was shipped with 5.1, thus having to wait for a jailbreak. For these people, this is a wonderful option. The phone can remain dead stock and still allow for tethering all for a one time fee that is cheaper than a single month of tethering would cost.

Tethering is free but I still say get MyWi for the extra tethering features the phone doesn't come with. It is worth it.
There are free MyWi Downloads but I say its best to get the real thing. 1 cause its reliable and 2 you also help them with their little community